Odds & Ends: Draft, Salazar, Meredith, Royals

Some more links as we inch closer and closer to the July 31 trade deadline... Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker suggests Major League Baseball should consider re-working its draft system.  Here's the gist of his idea:  "What I’d propose is a regulated amateur free agent system, in which the draft is discarded entirely. Every amateur player who meets the entry criteria (age, education, whatever) would be allowed to negotiate and sign with any team, regardless of national origin."  Check it out. The Baltimore Sun's Peter Schmuck gives his take on the Oscar Salazar-for-Cla Meredith swap:  "Oscar was the ultimate good soldier, waiting for his turn without complaint and performing very well as a spot player recently." As Joe Posnanski points out, the Royals have won just 19 of their last 62 games. Just how bad is that mark? The Dodgers have never lost as many games in a 62-game stretch. Baseball America's Ben Badler re...